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Hampton said:
Misplaced passes absolutely down to the players and agreed simply not good enough
Set up, tactics and approach absolutely down to the hapless, cowardly manager simply not good enough !
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Also the time wasting that Cook encouraged the last 10 minutes or so, especially for goal kicks.
Only a coward would encourage those tactics at home against bottom of the league, he should have been screaming at the players to go for all 3 points!

Absolute ****** that fella.
 
Stormin' Norman said:
Also the time wasting that Cook encouraged the last 10 minutes or so, especially for goal kicks.....
.
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I think it was Hampton who said the same thing. I could well be wrong, but I saw Cook patting down his hands toward Marshall too (on one occasion), but as it was directly after a frenetic passage of play, I thought he was merely telling him to "calm things down", as opposed to actually directing him to slow up play.

It's obvious that we all each see and interpret things differently. It wasn't imperative that we win. Another point and another clean sheet will give the team a better mindset for the next game than would a late loss to the bottom of the league. Sure, it was disappointing, but let's see how they respond at Huddersfield.
 
moonay said:
I think it was Hampton who said the same thing. I could well be wrong, but I saw Cook patting down his hands toward Marshall too (on one occasion), but as it was directly after a frenetic passage of play, I thought he was merely telling him to "calm things down", as opposed to actually directing him to slow up play.

It's obvious that we all each see and interpret things differently. It wasn't imperative that we win. Another point and another clean sheet will give the team a better mindset for the next game than would a late loss to the bottom of the league. Sure, it was disappointing, but let's see how they respond at Huddersfield.
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I saw it too but as it was so late in the game (injury time) calm it down / slow it down it couldn't really be interpreted as run down the clock. After that we weren't rushing men forward and we were slow to get over and take throwings so i think it's reasonable to say the instructions were given to not go for the 3 points at the risk the draw at that stage.

We've seen Cook do this a few times over the last 18 months and we generally are very risk averse in 6 pointers so i think it does make the most sense to interpret it as at that point we were playing for the draw.

Regarding it not being imperative - with 9 games left there is a lot of points left to play for but it depends how you look at the remaining fixtures. This was our easiest remaining game, we are no good at winning 6 pointers and 5 of our remaining games are those - so i think you could argue that we really needed this win. At the end of the season we'll know if it was a good or bad call to settle for the draw rather than push for the 3. Personally I think a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush, and we'd have been better trying to get 3 on the board rather than hope we'd be able to get sufficient points in harder games to come.
 
All fair points KDZ, but let me offer a slightly different view on the 6 pointers.

Is it that we don't deal well with the pressure, or, because the opposition are generally trying not to lose also, we're just not very good at breaking teams down who aren't committed to going forward?

Of those remaining 5 games, I think it's fair to say that the opposition will be targetting us as someone they'd hope to take points from .....................which means they'll have to come at us (to some degree), which in turn means that we may fare better.

Wishful thinking? No idea. Bottom line though, we have to be clinical with the chances when we get them, because we certainly weren't on Saturday. Oh, Michael Jacobs, you could so easily have been the hero, but instead, you left us all to talk bollocks for another week !

;)
 
moonay said:
I think it was Hampton who said the same thing. I could well be wrong, but I saw Cook patting down his hands toward Marshall too (on one occasion), but as it was directly after a frenetic passage of play, I thought he was merely telling him to "calm things down", as opposed to actually directing him to slow up play.

It's obvious that we all each see and interpret things differently. It wasn't imperative that we win. Another point and another clean sheet will give the team a better mindset for the next game than would a late loss to the bottom of the league. Sure, it was disappointing, but let's see how they respond at Huddersfield.
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🤡s got previous here - it wasn't the first time!
I looked at the clock when he first signalled to Marshall to slow it down - 86 mins
 
Hampton said:
.........I looked at the clock when he first signalled to Marshall to slow it down - 86 mins
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Yep, that would have been it.

One man's "slow it down" is obviously another man's "calm things down".

I also recollect Cook urging Marshall to get the ball upfield at different times........but late on also.
 
moonay said:
Yep, that would have been it.

One man's "slow it down" is obviously another man's "calm things down".

I also recollect Cook urging Marshall to get the ball upfield at different times........but late on also.
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It's all open to interpretation. If you don't like Cook you'll instinctively find fault in what he does, it's human nature. Personally I thought he was patting the heads of 2 invisible dwarves, but what do I know.
 
moonay said:
All fair points KDZ, but let me offer a slightly different view on the 6 pointers.

Is it that we don't deal well with the pressure, or, because the opposition are generally trying not to lose also, we're just not very good at breaking teams down who aren't committed to going forward?

Of those remaining 5 games, I think it's fair to say that the opposition will be targetting us as someone they'd hope to take points from .....................which means they'll have to come at us (to some degree), which in turn means that we may fare better.

Wishful thinking? No idea. Bottom line though, we have to be clinical with the chances when we get them, because we certainly weren't on Saturday. Oh, Michael Jacobs, you could so easily have been the hero, but instead, you left us all to talk bollocks for another week !

;)
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I think that it's a combination of us not handling the pressure and us being extra cautious in those type of high risk / high reward games. Which makes 6 pointers the opposite of what we are good at which is being the underdog and being brave and aggressive in our play.

Understandably other teams may be the same but looking at our relegation rivals we have the fewest wins in 6 pointers out of them all, with our only win being Charlton and that was at a point when Chalrton were flying and probably favourites to beat us earlier in the season, so mentally it probably didn't feel like a 6 pointer at the time as much as it could. As we discussed earlier the manner of performance and getting slaying another demon / braking another bad habit was a big thing heading into Luton.

If we had a table of just the bottom 8 it looks something like this

1. Boro - 26
2. Stoke - 22
3. Hull - 22
4. Huddersfield - 20
5. Luton - 20
6. Barnsley - 14
7. Charlton- 12
8. Wigan - 8

I've done those sums really quick, so if someone wants to go and check i've got them right by all means (they might not be perfect) but i have us down as 1 win out of 9, is very concerning when the majority of the teams around us have been picking up the lionshare of their points in these high pressure head to head. If we are going to stay up i don't think drawing all our remaining 6 pointers will cut it, i think we need a couple of wins in there.
 
From about the 5th minute I said to young un " we are sitting back, we aren't pressing "....I lay that accusation directly at Cook. In contrast Luton were
trying to high press.

It looked to me like one team at least tried to win while the other not to lose.
 
Re the pressing, I think you're right hindley .......we certainly didn't do it as "commitedly" as in recent games ............................... but as for your assessment of who was trying to win the game, well, I know that stats are beyond lies and damned lies, but these seem to show a different story:

...............................Wigan.........Luton
Possession...........59%.............41%
Shots.......................12...............3
Shots on Target.....2 ................1
Corners.....................6.................3
 
Best player on the pitch was Luton’s number 14. Never stopped running, relentlessly pressed our defenders and gave Balogun by far his toughest game of the season so far. If Luton go down and we don’t, I’d consider trying to sign him.
 
C_Latic said:
Best player on the pitch was Luton’s number 14. Never stopped running, relentlessly pressed our defenders and gave Balogun by far his toughest game of the season so far. If Luton go down and we don’t, I’d consider trying to sign him.
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Harry Cornick, not done much over his career so far but enjoying his best season so far with 8 goals. I've seen him a couple of times and thought he looked a good worker and decent player.
 
Agree re Cornick looking good..........but he was also a shithouse.

He was the one who went down for a pen when he wasn't touched ......and his haircut was bloody awful. 👀
 
moonay said:
Agree re Cornick looking good..........but he was also a shithouse.

He was the one who went down for a pen when he wasn't touched ......and his haircut was bloody awful. 👀
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Amazing how we all see things differently - few around me thot their did bugger all but run around like a headless chicken but agreed with the shithousery & diving for the pen.... few around us were singing ' your just a shit Jack Grealish. Personally not someone I'd rate or like the club to sign.
 
moonay said:
Agree re Cornick looking good..........but he was also a shithouse.

He was the one who went down for a pen when he wasn't touched ......and his haircut was bloody awful. 👀
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The penalty shout in the first or second half?

Second one was a piss take, but first half watching the replay i thought it was, Williams grabbed the guy but the over dramatic fall probably made it look more a dive than the actual foul it was. Got away with that one!

Cornick i think is one of those players low on technical ability but never stops running and knows how to make the most of his limitations. I don't think he's ever going to be a natrual goal scorer but think he's doing well as part of the front 3 at Luton.

Don't think he'd be any good for us though as we only play 1 up front and that is generally isolated.

I think Izzy Brown for attacking mid would be a better one for us next season if Chelsea were looking to loan him out again or let him go. To be fair when i saw he went to Luton in the summer i did think why weren't we in there.
 
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